Today I got the best treat, courtesy of my amazingly talented co-worker Jamie. I bring food to Jamie a lot, and he in turn provides me with lots of encouragement and kindness, but man, is he modest. All along he's been hiding his culinary prowess from me! Turns out, this is a man who has spent a lot of time making mole! Who knew?!
So today, he brought me a lovely little (actually, BIG) package of blissful chicken in Oaxacan black mole, plus perfectly tender seasoned rice w/ little bits of squash, some kind of velvety white beans ever so subtly scented with some kind of fruit I've yet to determine, and a perfectly ripe avocado, and a beautiful little dark chocolate pot de creme for desert. AND, if all that weren't enough, he brought me one of his favorite Mexican cuisine cookbooks, by Diana Kennedy, who has travelled all over Mexico studying the different regional styles of cooking. Holy Mole indeed!
So then, my lovely friend and birthday-mate Janet called to invite me to lunch, but instead I invited her to come share this feast with me, and she brought a perfect salad, and there happened to be a leftover bottle or 3 of wine from our Christmas party, so we dove into it all with very little restraint. Dude, do I have like, the best job ever?
It only took one bite of the mole for us both to decide that we are now Jamie's devotees. And by the second bite, we'd decided that when our birthday rolls around in about... 3 months and 11 days, I will be making this exact meal using Jamie's recipes. And there will also be several kinds of homemade salsa, and the very necessary blood orange margaritas, and perhaps by then I will have begun to make my own tortillas. Who said getting older sucks? Actually, I'm having a blast, and can hardly wait to turn 38.
So there. Thanks for the inspiration, Jamie!
2 comments:
Sounds like a serendipitious day and a great meal. Thank you for sharing. Is there any chance that you will post Jaime's mole recipe?
Well hi there, anonymous! Sorry I didn't see this posting sooner. Word on the street is that Jamie's mole recipe comes from the Diana Kennedy cookbook that I can't remember the title of right now. But it's on my list of books to get.
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